On Mon, 2008-08-04 at 09:41 -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> How do other distributions deal with conflicting filenames in upstream
> packages? For instance, in Fedora we have coda-client and coq packaged.
> They both provide /usr/bin/parser.
Hey,
Debian (and by extension Ubuntu) has the same attitude it seems.
There are a couple of approaches you can use
* Alternatives, if both /usr/bin/parser were command
line compatible implementations of the same thing then they
can use "alternatives" to make themselves co-installable and
let the administrator choose which /usr/bin/parser
invokes. Think java compilers.
* Conflicts, if the two packages are not meant to be installed
together then a conflicts is appropriate. However, shipping
the same filename isn't a good enough reason on it's own.
If the two packages are unrelated and just have a filename
clash you are not supposed to conflict.
* Renaming, as you said, if there is no other choice then
one or the other must rename the file.
I realise that's more than you asked for, but you might be interested
in the policies behind it as well as the end result.
> If other distros have a policy of name changing, it would be nice to
> start a list of packages that we're doing renames to so that we could at
> least have consistency between ourselves.
That would be an interesting idea, and a good use for the wiki I expect.
I don't imagine there is a better way of finding existing cases
than asking developers where they know of any?
Thanks,
James